Posted
by
timothy
on Tuesday December 08, 2009 @09:20AM
from the your-ethics-may-vary dept.

bckspc writes "The Committee to Protect Journalists has published their annual census of journalists in prison. Of the 136 reporters in prison around the world on December 1, 'At least 68 bloggers, Web-based reporters, and online editors are imprisoned, constituting half of all journalists now in jail.' Print was next with 51 cases. Also, 'Freelancers now make up nearly 45 percent of all journalists jailed worldwide, a dramatic recent increase that reflects the evolution of the global news business.' China, Iran, Cuba, Eritrea, and Burma were the top 5 jailers of journalists."
rmdstudio writes, too, with word that after the last few days' protest there, largely organized online, the government of Iran is considering the death penalty for bloggers and webmasters whose reports offend it.

hackingbear writes: Dr. Tsien Hsue-shen, also known as the Father of Chinese Rocketry, died at 98 in Beijing. (Announcement in Chinese by Xinhua News Agency.) During the 1940s Tsien was one of the founders of Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology. During the red scare of the 1950s the United States government accused Tsien of having communist sympathies. Tsien and his family were wrongfully imprisoned. Undersecretary of the Navy Dan Kimball tried to keep Tsien in the U.S. commenting "It was the stupidest thing this country ever did...he was no more a Communist than I was and we forced him to go." The Chinese government later exchanged him with American POWs captured in Korean War. Tsien deliberately left his research papers behind when he left the United States. He later kicked start the Chinese missile and rocket program, which has successfully developed products ranging from ICBMs to manned spacecraft. Tsien was also invited to visit the US after the normalization of Sino-US relationship. But he refused the invitation because the US government only offered a compensation without apology for his detainment. He has received numerous state honors in China before his death.

andylim writes: "Spotify's highly anticipated iPhone app that allows you to stream music directly to your iPhone is now available to download from the Apple app store. Recombu.com has a hands-on video showing how the app works and thankfully it seems that all the functionality shown off in the preview video a few months ago is still there."

Hugh Pickens writes: "Last month Jason Calacanis, CEO of Mahalo, wrote that Apple's anti-competitve behavior and closed platform on the iPhone is setting the stage for the fight for the next desktop: the mobile desktop and if Apple wins the fight it will set the industry back decades. Calacanis highlighted five reasons that Apple is an "anti-competitive monster": It doesn't make iTunes or iPod compatible with other Mp3 players, highlighting what Calacanis called its "inexcusable lack of openness"; it locks iPhone users into AT&T as a carrier; it makes iPhone developers go through an "unclear" approval process; it blocks other browsers from being installed on the iPhone; and it blocks applications like Google Voice from iPhones. The WSJ reports that Calacanis debated former Apple marketing executive Guy Kawasaki at Startup2startup, a monthly event for Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and investors and Calacanis made the case that the iPhone is not a phone, it's a computer and "the application layer on a computer should not be controlled by anybody." Kawasaki responded that he may not agree with the approval process for iPhone apps, but that doesn't mean Apple is evil and instead merely shows that the company is successful at its business. Calacanis argued that the more open technology is, the more everyone benefits. "Everyone has benefited from the open Internet. The open Internet is the reason why all these VCs will invest in your companies," said Calacanis adding that "I think there should be an iPhone bill of rights.""

Posted
by
kdawson
on Friday August 21, 2009 @09:30AM
from the rocket-in-your-pocket dept.

An anonymous reader writes "It is now clear why Nokia has been so slow with S60 updates: the upcoming N900 just left everything else in the dust. Unlike Google's Linux platform, Nokia is not intentionally breaking compatibility with real distros, choosing instead to bring you the unmatchable power of GNU/Linux on your phone. This is the most awesome device I have ever seen: MAP3 CPU/GPU, 3,5" 800x480 touchscreen, keyboard, Wi-Fi, HSPA, GPS; 5-MP camera, CZ lens, 32 GB storage, SD slot; X11, VT100 terminal emulator, APT package manager. Estimated price without credit: $780 (N.5800: $390, iPhone 3GS: $750). Developers should note that even though the current desktop is still GTK+, Qt will be standard across all Nokia platforms in the near future (less powerful phones will use Qt on the Symbian kernel). Users can download flashing software from Nokia, and patches can be submitted at the Maemo site."

carpenter37 writes: "While the agreement was not written, it was considered protocol in Google's recruitment division, sources told TechCrunch. The alleged agreement between the two companies may have sparked an antitrust investigation from the U.S. Justice Department."

Stussy writes: The myths persist, however, when it comes to Linux. In the eyes of many computer users, Linux is perceived as largely functional, mostly restricted to running servers, office tasks and web browsing.

However, there is a wide and ever growing range of native Linux games available, but given the range, it can be hard to identify which ones are worth a spin. We hope this article will unite gamers with some really exciting titles.

This article is the first in a three part series entitled 42 Hot Free Linux Games. Parts 2 and 3 will be available shortly.

hardsix writes: "Facebook has has confirmed that it also suffered a DDOS attack on Thursday and has pointed the finger at the account of one Georgian blogger — known as Cyxymu — who appears have been the target of the denial of service attack.
"It was a simultaneous attack across a number of properties targeting him to keep his voice from being heard," said Max Kelly, chief security officer at Facebook.
Security researchers have pointed out that the attack appears to conicide with the anniversary of the escalation of the conflict between Russia and Georgia last year in South Ossetia. But also pointed out how fragile Twitter appears to be if an attack on one user could bring it down.
"This raises the astonishing thought that a vendetta against a single user caused Twitter to crumble, forcing us to ask serious questions about the site's fragility," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at security software specialist Sophos."

An anonymous reader writes: Most readers will know Windows 7 was made available for download yesterday to MSDN/Technet subscribers. Windows Server 2008 R2 was supposedly due for release too. It wasn't there yesterday and still isn't this morning. Yesterday morning I could have downloaded a Release Candidate, but now even that is missing. Can any conspiracy theorists help explain this?

Pessimist+Cynic writes: ...according to Dr. Elizabeth Whelan, president of the American Council on Science and Health.
The FDA had first issued a warning saying that e-cigarettes are just as evil as their (what they're now being called) analog counterparts, the tobacco cigarettes. People that have already quit smoking with the help of e-cigarettes could not believe how the FDA came to the conclusion that propylene glycol + nicotine could be as harmful as the 4700 chemical compounds that can be found in cigarettes. Well, apparently neither can Dr. Whelan believe that, given the editorial she wrote for the Washington Times. Is the FDA afraid they won't be able to tax vaporizing devices as heavily as tobacco cigarettes?

zBrain writes: In a letter to API developers, LyricWiki has informed us that the API can no longer serve lyrics. This effectively makes many applications worthless, and removes some interesting features from many others. The question remains, what is there to gain if they allow the lyrics to be served on the web but not via an API?

An anonymous reader writes: "A teen, who was sent to a rehabilitation camp in China to cure his internet addiction was beaten to death by his trainers.
While this is considered a cure for Internet addiction, it was not what the parents of Deng Senshan, 16, had in mind when they sent him to the camp. The three supervisors who allegedly beat him to death have been arrested."
Seen on: http://www.fudzilla.com/content/view/14916/1/

aliebrah writes: "HSBC appears to have dropped support for non-IE browsers for their Verified by Visa service. The official line taken by HSBC is that their entire online platform is "built for Internet Explorer". Other browsers such as Firefox and Safari are unsupported. When asked what Mac users should do, the reply: "use Internet Explorer".
How many customers is HSBC going to alienate by this move? By many metrics, Internet Explorer's market share is now below 80% worldwide. That leaves a gaping hole for the remaining 20%+ users who aren't on IE but want to shop online."

zsau writes: "Debian, well known amongst GNU/Linux distributions as having a long and inconsistent release cycle, has just decided to adopt a two-yearly freeze cycle in the December of every odd year. Although this doesn't mean releases happen every two years or that software will be more up-to-date, it could allow some form of co-ordination with software releasers and other distributions, in addition to improving the release and upgrade process for the Debian Project and their users."